O'Brien's Broken Play
by Robert Johns
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Pub Date Oct 31 2023 | Archive Date Nov 30 2023
Greenleaf Book Group | River Grove Books
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Description
You’re going to get knocked down. Getting back up is what counts.
Meet Tom O’Brien—disciplined, motivated, the star of his 1965 high school football team, and about to be recruited by Ohio State. But when Tom gets injured and is unable to play, he finds himself at a crossroads during a turbulent time in American history. With increasing self-doubt and uncertainty, he tries to reconcile the loss of a dream with the search for a new purpose.
Tom journeys through a sharply divided country, from suburban Ohio and Kent State to Hawaii, Los Angeles, and beyond. He protests the Vietnam War, engages in intellectual debates, and experiments with different ways of life, reinventing not only his identity but also the values that shape his existence. Robert Johns’s debut novel follows one young man’s search for meaning, delving deep into the burgeoning counterculture, political upheaval, and generational divides that mark the late '60s and early '70s. O’Brien’s Broken Play is an intensely human story of reframing the all-American dream and embracing an alternative fate.
A Note From the Publisher
PDF Only, ePub to come
Advance Praise
“A visceral, compassionate story about the hope of the 1960s and the heartbreak of America’s favorite sport.”
—Katherine Hill, author of A Short Move
“You can feel the tense divide between expectation, promise, destruction, and recovery. O’Brien’s Broken Play is a novel rich in historical details and a deeply moving character study of one man’s journey to revitalize his self-worth and heal past traumas. An adventure not to be missed.”
—Jody Lulich, author of In the Company of Grace: a Veterinarian’s Memoir of Trauma and Healing
“With O’Brien’s Broken Play, Robert Johns crafts a lovely, tender portrait of a young man’s search for meaning after his football dreams are dashed. From the 1970 shootings at Kent State to a hippie commune in Hawaii, this engrossing coming-of-age tale is set against a fascinating historical tableau. It’s sure to satisfy those who lived through the period and those curious to understand its complicated, far-reaching legacy.”
—Maya Hlavacek, creative writing faculty member, Minneapolis College of Art and Design
“The main character in Robert John’s debut novel will immediately draw you in and carry you through the many shifts of his journey. An authentic seeker, he travels through the late ’60s and early ’70s—a time in American history that is wrought with painful divisions and seismic reckonings. That backdrop is an integral part of Tom O’Brien’s challenges as he navigates stardom as a talented athlete, an injury that changes the direction of his life, explorations into anti-Vietnam war protests, and the subcultures of those times. It’s a historically meaningful story told through the personal lens of O’Brien who, in response to the changes all around him and his own broken dreams, deepens his search for identity and connection. A suspenseful page-turner, this novel will invite you to remember or learn more of those times and to accompany this memorable character as he reinvents himself in ever-surprising and meaningful ways.”
—Patricia Hoolihan, author of Hands and Heart Together: Daily Meditations for Caregivers and Storm Prayers: Retrieving and Reimagining Matters of the Soul
Available Editions
| EDITION | Paperback |
| ISBN | 9781632997500 |
| PRICE | $22.95 (USD) |
| PAGES | 392 |
